Monday, July 10, 2017

Comparison ~ Sony 16mm, Sigma 19mm, and Nikon 24mm

It seems I'm not yet over the Madness that's taken hold. Here is a comparison of Sony, Sigma, and Nikkor wide angle lenses.

The lenses being compared include a Sony 16mm f/2.8 SEL "pancake" that sold with the first line of NEX-5 cameras. Mine came as a reconditioned kit and I can't seem to find a reason nor a way to jettison it from my wee-collection of toys. Then I added a Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-S to the comparison. My thoughts were that I could put it on a Zhongyi Lens Turbo II and get higher image quality than the 16mm Sony. I was hoping that this setup would match the very nice Sigma 19mm EX DN E f/2.8 (included here as my control optic). There are times I like the full frame equivalent of 24mm's and the Sigma is more like working with a 28mm full frame lens on APS-C. And lastly, two Sony kit lenses are included here. One has 16mm's on the short end. That is, of course, the Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 SEL OSS. The other has 18mm's on the short end and is the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SEL OSS. Both are little valued in the marketplace and have received a lot of criticism.

Comparison setup -

Some pages out of a local newspaper taped to the bedroom wall

Sony A6000 set to "A", 100 ISO, 2second delay

Massive Manfrotto tripod

No sharpening applied to the RAW output

500 pixel sections were taken from the various images and organized below

Here are the center and edge of the scene comparisons. As a control, I added a Sigma 19mm EX DN E into the mix. As always, take a look at the following image a full resolution to note the differences between the various focal lengths and apertures.

Starting with the lens shown at top and moving down to the bottom, here are my comments.

The Sony 16mm f/2.8 SEL is soft wide open. Every comparison I've performed confirms my copy is less than stellar at that aperture. However, stopped down one click the lens starts to "wake up." The center is sharp from f/4 on. The edges don't sharpen up until f/5.6. If you're a "critical photographer", this is an inexpensive, widely available, great little "pancake" lens that shoots best from f/5.6 to f/11.

Back in the day, Nikon's Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-S was taken to be a wonderfully sharp and versatile lens. As we can see in this comparison, the center is sharp from wide open. However, when mounted on a Zhongyi Lens Turbo II focal reducer to work on an APS-C sensor'd camera, the edges never ever sharpen up. I've shot this in the wild and there's just no way of getting the edges sharp. So much for the idea of using it with the Zhongyi focal reducer.

I've put this on a straight-through adapter and can use it as a 35mm equivalent focal length lens on APS-C. When used this way it's sharp to the edges from f/4 on down. While not exactly inexpensive (they're currently running between 100 and 200Euro, depending), it does give that Nikon "look." To me it's not worth buying a full frame camera to use just this one lens to achieve a single goal, so, I guess I'm not sure what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll stop looking for a cheap Nikkor 35mm f/2.8 and simply keep the 24mm Nikkor on the non-focal reduced adapter?

Next, we come to the control lens in this comparison. The Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN E is sharp from wide open straight across the field from the center to the very edges. What's not to love about this little lens? It's inexpensive (just a tick north of 100Euro at this point, used in mint condition), light, and comes with AF that's nearly as quick as the Sony 16mm SEL.

The last two optics in this wee-comparison are the two Sony kit lenses. Starting with the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 SEL OSS at 16mm we see that the center is sharp from wide open. The edges are, however, nearly as bad as with the 24mm Nikkor mounted on the Zhongyi focal reducer. They never seem to improve, regardless of aperture. This lens is a bit more expensive than the earlier kit lens. Maybe people like it because it's nearly a "pancake" optic? If this were the only lens you owned, I'm sure it'd do a decent job of getting you where you want to go. But for similar, or possibly less money I'd buy a Sigma 19mm and call it good.

Finally, the Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SEL OSS remains the surprise lens of the comparison. It's sharp from wide open and is only slightly less sharp than the Sigma at the very edges. This is surprising to me as so many people have "trash talked" this lens across the internet. What I've learned from doing these comparisons is that if there's sufficient sun (or a tripod on hand) that shooting this lens at f/8 or f/11 is the equal (or very nearly the equal) of more highly praised fixed focal length optics.

Background

Christopher
Mark Perez is a retired software engineering program manager,
specializing in uncovering the most interesting experiences life can
offer while living with his lovely wife, Judith, in Paris, France.
When seeking relief from the long and arduous task of retirement,
this American ex-patriot haunts the edges of ancient philosophies,
rich cultures, and fascinating societies to express and share images
as art by avidly pursuing photography. He occasionally stands-in as
a photo-educator at a local Anglophone society, too. Spicy, flavored
and strongly favored image making themes include thickly textured,
darkly rich Noir Victorian Gothic, Dark Romanticism, Rococco and
Steampunk, Tribal Fusion Bellydance subjects.